


Stepping on Cracks

by Lex Vale (deductively)



Series: FMA x GHOST [1]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Author loves to chat in the Comments, Based on a Vocaloid Song, Blind Roy Mustang, Eating Disorders, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Y'all ready to suffer? I am lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 11:04:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13680405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deductively/pseuds/Lex%20Vale
Summary: Why are the sacrifices still moving forward, after all that's happened?  When the world is about to end and crumble before them?  When they've made irreversible mistakes that have resulted in agonizing consequences?Because their happy days have been granted, and will continue to be, so long as they see the light . . .





	Stepping on Cracks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moistang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moistang/gifts).



_ Say I could make a perfect world . . . _

 

“You know what’s interesting about you four?”

The sound of a train rumbling overhead wasn’t enough to drown out Father’s derisive words as he gave the sacrifices he’d acquired a bloodcurdling smirk.  Pebbles rained from the stalactites threatening to fall and pierce through them.  Maybe that would’ve been for the best; that’s all they could think as they looked solemnly at each other.  Maybe the old saying is true, that there are indeed fates worse than death.  Being impaled by rock seemed to be more favorable than whatever was about to befall them now.

That, however, was not an option.  Even if it were, they couldn’t take it now, not with the fate of the world dangling on a rapidly unravelling thread.

Father’s eyebrow arched curiously.  “What’s rather interesting,” he answered despite the silence he was met with, “is that you all tried to better your worlds through alchemy, didn’t you?  You used the one thing that you didn’t truly understand to reach for what you desired, only to have that ripped away from you, along with the things that meant the most to you.”  His piercing golden eyes flitted over to Edward before closing.  “How does it feel?  Do you feel empty?”  He chuckled.  “Ah, forgive me . . . I couldn’t resist a jest.”

He looked up just in time to witness a void opening in the ceiling, causing the four sacrifices to look up as the fifth plummeted into the rubble below.  A cry of pain erupted from the rock, but the figure upon it was otherwise limp.

_ I hope he didn’t die . . . we haven’t started the fun yet. _

 

Edward Elric stared at the ceiling as the entrance sealed itself, then turned his attention to the dark-haired ragdoll in the debris.  He recognized it too quickly.

“Colonel Mustang!”  He forced himself to his feet and ran to the fallen colonel, hooking his arms under his shoulders and pulling him out.  Blood trickled from a wound on Roy’s pale skin, and he wasn’t moving, but he could feel his back rising and falling with shallow breath, and he was mumbling incoherently.  If that was the best he could get right then, so be it, as long as he was alive.

The clanking of metal signaled Alphonse’s approach, and Van Hohenheim and Izumi Curtis made their way over to assist in helping Roy to the safest possible place, if such an area existed here.

“Fullmetal?”  His voice was lined with gravel, and his eyes were dim, the fire within their darkness reduced to mere embers.  “Where am I, what’s going on . . . ?”  He tried to stand, but Izumi and Hohenheim held him down.  “What are you—?”

Alphonse knelt before Roy.  “Colonel, you’re hurt.”  He examined the wounds on his hands.  They’d been pierced through, and the skin around the lacerations as wet with blood.  “You can’t move around too much right now.’

Roy was silent for a moment, staring at the floor with an empty gaze.  “Where are we?”

“We . . .”  Frustration snaked into Ed’s temples, throbbing as a constant reminder.   _ We don’t know.  We don’t know.   _ I  _ don’t know. _  “Underground somewhere, but we’re gonna get out, all right?”

Another, longer moment of silence.  The colonel’s eyes didn’t shift.  “I don’t know how you can see anything when it’s so dark in here.”

_ Dark? _

“Colonel Mustang, it's not dark in here—it is, but not so much so that you wouldn’t be able to see.”  Ed’s words came firmly from Izumi’s lips.  “Can you see anything?  Anything at all?”

Roy’s hand trembled as he lifted it, holding it in front of his eyes, staring through it.  Ed could even see the tears welling in his eyes before being swallowed by his pride.  “I . . . I can’t.  I can’t see anything, it’s just darkness everywhere.”  Panic trembled in his voice.  Barely audible.  It must’ve been exploding within him.  His eyes began to glisten again, only to drain the tears.  He wouldn’t cry, it was just a fact.  It was amazing in an almost sick way, how Ed felt he’d seen everyone in his life cry at least once except for Roy.

 

Izumi wrapped an arm around his shoulder and lifted him to his feet, pressing a hand against his chest.  His eyes flitted to where her grip was, she noticed, but she didn’t care.  She didn’t know him like the Elrics, but judging by the rage in Ed’s eyes and the way Al hovered around him worriedly, it would be in her best interest to keep him alive.

“Thank you.”  He leaned against her only slightly, as if he didn’t want even his body to reveal any need for support.  “You’re . . . their teacher, aren’t you?”

The housewife blinked at him before cracking a grim smile.  “Teacher?  No, I’m just a housewife passing through, helping blind dogs of the military to their feet.”

Roy nodded, not questioning, not prying any further.  Izumi’s brow furrowed.  An apathy seemed to grow within him, one greater than the stories described.  His stare wasn’t just hollow because he was blind; it was because he now seemed to be constantly wandering through darkness.  The world had been closing in around him, dimming slowly, and now the light had been sucked out of him.

Izumi cast her eyes down.  When she glanced back up at him, he seemed to have aged twenty years.

 

Worthless thoughts.  Worthless, insubstantial words that were flying in and out of Roy’s mind, aching in his temples, rumbling along the train tracks overhead.  He’d felt this twice before, the first time far away in Ishval.  That time, that burning shrapnel felt so close now, cutting away at his soul, draining his energy.  But he cauterized the wounds with the coldness of acedia hidden behind a warm smile.  When the second time came around, though, he wasn’t able to seal away the pain so quickly . . .

He didn’t have a chance but to keep moving, to let Izumi aid him in his survival.  The fact that she’d bothered to help him was enough to give him a glimmer of emotion, maybe even the ghost of a smile as his eyes swept over the space, landing on those he cared about with out his knowledge.

There was something left.

 

Something was left within every last one of them.  All would not be lost if they could just keep their faith, if they could remember the reasons why they didn’t want the stalactites to fall from the cave’s ceiling, to end them before the beginning of the new day.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, my name is Roy Mustang. You killed my boyfriend. Prepare to die.  
>  _*riza like bruh im your gf*_  
>  So remember that time I said I was taking a hiatus? Yeah, see, I lied. I'm not taking a hiatus. Not completely, anyway. I deleted like 99.2% of my works because self-confidence is down the drain so yeah. Hope you enjoy it more than I do/ever will, jinkies.


End file.
